We can now realize that this is a group of people who had received the word of God. Since they had believed that much already, the apostle was able to tell them to repent. This did not touch their behavior, but their view. The apostle was not saying that if they did not change their former conduct, they could not be saved. This is absolutely not a matter of dealing with a person's conduct. What they had to do was judge themselves and be baptized upon the name of the Lord Jesus as an expression of their faith in Him. In this way, their sins would be forgiven, and the Holy Spirit would be received by them. Hence, the condition for our salvation is faith alone. Salvation is given to us freely. We need not do anything to come to God. It is God Himself who has come to save us because of His Son Jesus Christ.

Acts 3:19-20 says, "Repent therefore and turn, that your sins may be wiped away, so that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." When we read this verse, we may think that repentance is a condition for salvation. It is true that verse 19 seems to indicate that repentance is a condition of salvation. But we must pay attention to the whole passage from verse 1 on. We cannot read verse 19 alone. It would be wrong for us to start from verse 19 and explain it according to our thought. From verse 1 on, we find the story of a lame man being healed. When this lame man looked at Peter, Peter said to him, "Silver and gold I do not possess, but what I have, this I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene rise up and walk" (v. 6). When all the people saw a man who was born lame begin to walk, they marveled. Peter then stood up to give a message. First, he explained that this was not his work, and it was not through his godliness that such a person was made to walk. In verses 15-20 he said, "And the Author of life you killed, whom God has raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And upon faith in His name, His name has made this man strong....Repent therefore and turn, that your sins may be wiped away, so that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord." What was he saying? He was talking about faith. He was saying that we believe in His being raised from the dead, that we believe in His name, and that His name had made the man strong. Here was a lame man that everyone knew. It was faith from the Lord that had made this man whole. If we want to believe, just as they had believed, we have to repent. If we want faith, we have to pay attention to repentance. If we want to receive Him, we must have a new view and a new evaluation concerning Him. We must have this qualification.

I mentioned earlier that repentance can never be separated from faith; it is included in faith. Before man repents, he cannot believe. After a man has some faith, he must repent. If a man has a certain amount of faith in God's word, he must repent. One cannot cut the matter neatly with a pair of scissors, with one side being faith and the other side being repentance. This resembles the salvation experience of many people. If you ask one hundred people when they were saved, perhaps only fifty can give you the exact date and year of their salvation. The other half would not know when they were saved. They do not know how they received God's salvation. To them it matters little how they were saved. The important thing is that they are saved. It is all right if they do not know the date of their birth. As long as they are born, they feel that it is good enough. Hence, we can see that at the beginning, the word of God was first preached (2:16). If they had not believed, why would they be pricked in their hearts?